Well I did something really stupid and had a flush trimming accident. Was trying a technique to mitigate tear out on the vulnerable top edge and went through the veneer. So I though I'd sand down the entire top and re-stick a piece of veneer over the whole thing, then put a chamfer on the top of the baffle, like this. So I sanded. But the more I thought about it, the more I really didn't want a chamfer. This was a "fix" and I'd forever hate it. So I did some googling and apparently contact cement is pretty easy to remove. Just heat it up and use a putty knife to peel 'er off. Ya right!!! What I found works best was to use a belt sander, which gets it hot. Take all the veneer wood off, then the paper will start to peel up with the contact cement under the friction of the belt sander. Then I ROS sanded the top flat and smooth. That took all of 10 minutes, but I spent an hour trying different things. I tried heat, chisel, block sanding, etc. Now I've got a little lip where the old veneer met the baffle. I'll replace the veneer tight against the maple baffle and be back in business. I hope :-\
Well, it's been a frustrating finish. I'll explain more later when I post some more, but I had some sand through Unreal really. Hate myself for it. Here I fill a couple minor gaps with walnut sawdust and CA glue Here I filled the burls with epoxy I then sanded the whole thing down, which is when I got the sand through. I'll take some photos tonight hopefully. I also applied a coat of boil linseed oil. Tonight I'll install the drivers for testing cause I won't bother with finish coats for a while until the weather improves and I've spent some time listening to them.
Worst thing ever: hating yourself for trying to do a good job. Take a break man, ease up on yourself.
Got it oiled and assembled. Still need to finish it properly, but for now it looks pretty close to the final product. It's a little dusty from being in the shop. Here's that sand through. Thankfully the photos make it appear a little worse than it is, but I still need to think about fixing this. I wanted a darker colour anyways so I'm debating a dark toner shellac coat or possibly paint. Paint is unlikely though. Different light. The burls and birds eyes are just amazing. Photos don't do it justice. Now comes the fun part, measurements and listening. Honing this thing into perfection
Guess what. I asked my wife what she thought of them... SHE HATES THEM. Says the two types of woods are ugly and I should have just made them one or the other. They were destined for the living room, so now what... :-\
Oh, that's a bummer. Maybe there's two problems with one solution: paint. But please keep the burl. It's awesome.
I hope they have a great personality to match their stunning beauty. Even if they don't, I love 'em anyway! Very nice. I've heard others express the same sentiment on occasion--they prefer one uniform color and appearance all around and hate the contrasting wood, which I love. Perhaps there are some special glasses you can get her, which would permit her to see only one color. Those are spectacular, even if they are destined to be garage speakers, because she won't let them in the house. Edit: I think the Maple Burl guitar body would have looked great if not for the big hole in the way.
Sounds all a bit dramatic. So, she thinks they're ugly. What do YOU think? I am sure there's something of hers you live with that you think is ugly. And if you really hate them and cannot stand to see them...... I know a guy here in Calgary who will have them Who thinks they're great! Congrats man, that was a lot of hard work to this point
Thanks guys. Well she did say I could put them there if I wanted. And she told me what she thought of them in a really nice way. But I know what it means, she thinks they're ugly. I think they're great, and I'll deal with that sand through. But I don't want to screw up the living room for her. I have my places that she respects. The HT and the shop are mine to use how I want. So no big deal. I'll make them sing, make grills, figure out a finish (tinted black clear or paint), make stands.... then decide what to do. Maybe I'll sell them for my costs. But I'm about $600 into these. Plus stands and stuff. Hard to sell that kind of DIY speaker. They're small enough I could store them and demo them to people when they come over. I'll probably take them to a couple GTGs. There's a DIY event this summer, etc. So I'll get to enjoy them for a while before I'm really straining to find a use.
Got them going in a temporary spot just to try them out. They sound like crap so I'll measure them tonight and see what's going on.
Thanks. I got them sounding pretty good now. I'll do some serious listening tonight and see what need improvement. Already sounding better than I expected by now though
That solves your veneer sanding issue now, doesn't it? Time to find a matching veneer for the baffle.
Haha, that wouldn't be easy. And would probably be expensive veneer. I'm gonna try a heavily tinted shellac on the walnut and see what she thinks. Almost black where you can barely see the grain. That'll mask the sand through. Which, BTW, as the oil dries is harder and harder to see the sand through. If she still doesn't like them, I'll consider paint or keeping them for myself. 8)
Moved them downstairs to give them some proper listening. I know I know, YouTube doesn't reproduce what they sound like. This is just to show the XO, the excursion, the walnut and maple, etc. http://youtu.be/C8BjFSVrX-Q
Hi Tux, great work on the speaker. Looks very professional! I think having a uniform/matching baffle would add (and be more coherent) with the classy form factor. In case your lady doesn't like seeing exposed drivers and waveguides, having grills could increase the WAF (everything adds up).
Well, I've been listening to the same XO for some time. I can't find many faults with it and really enjoy it. I haven't measured it yet though. One thing I don't like about it is the complexity. This speaker I did want to be simple. The tweeter network is a little complex. I think I might try the DNA-205 also, just to try and see what can be done with it. Something I really like is how much bass I get out of these sealed woofers. Quite a bit more than a common PA driver. And with healthy xmax I don't find them a problem with a 60hz XO to my subs. I really like how they integrate and handle bass.